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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Lemon Pound Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a lovely cake, but to my great surprise, I haven't been able to find it on other blogs or recipe sites. It was developed for Gourmet magazine ages ago, and, while this gorgeous pound cake should be manna for lemon lovers, it seems to have fallen into obscurity. Pound cakes were traditionally made with a pound of each of flour, butter, eggs and sugar. Nowadays, ratio, rather than weight, defines this classic, and any cake made with ingredients in a 1:1:1:1 ratio is considered to be a pound cake, regardless of its component weight. If you are interested, more detailed information about this type of cake can be found here. Pound or butter cakes get their lift from a combination of butter, eggs and baking powder. They are heavier and richer than sponge cakes and they are also easier to make. They are not foolproof, but if you measure your ingredients carefully you should have a lovely cake to serve your family. We'd all have better and more consistent luck with our baked goods if we weighed our ingredients. Unfortunately, most of us do not yet do that. When I prepare dry ingredients for baking, I spoon rather than scoop them into a measuring cup. I also level the content of the cup with the back of a knife rather than my fingers. When you look at the ingredient list for this cake, you will undoubtedly notice that it calls for 1/4 cup lemon zest. That is not a mistake. Five large lemons will yield that amount of zest, but a caution must be issued here. Make sure you avoid the white pith when you zest the lemons. The pith will make the cake bitter and its after taste can be downright unpleasant. Your cake will probably need more time in the oven than the recipe suggests. Mine required an hour to bake. This is a wonderful cake for lemon lovers and it makes a perfect base for macerated fruit. When the recipe was published, it was suggested that the cake be served with strawberries. While it's delicious served that way, I actually prefer to serve it with a blueberry or blackberry compote. Perhaps that's an unconscious homage to the state of Oregon. I hope you'll try this recipe. I love this intensely lemon-flavored cake. I think you will, too. Here's the recipe.Lemon Pound Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Directions:1) Move a rack to the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a kugelhopf or other 2-quart bundt plan. Set aside.2) Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.3) Using paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric stand mixer at medium speed, until pale and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each additin. Beat in vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low. In three batches beginning and ending with flour, add flour, alternately with milk and lemon juice, and beat just until combined.4) Spoon batter into pan and smooth top. Bake unil cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in several placed comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes.Cool cake in pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.5) While cake cools, whisk confectioners' sugar into lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth and thick.6) When cake is cool, set rack over a baking sheet or waxed paper. Drizzle glaze over cake, letting it drip down sides. Serve cake with fruit if desired. Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog...it's been getting mighty lonely here! I've fallen off regular posting and have lost my mojo!You have a wonderful blog! Love the photo! I do so love lemon pound cake! I will be bookmarking this one for sure! thanks for sharing!

Wonderful photos. I remember making pound cake with my Mum when I was in primary school. Don't think I've made one since though. I'm bookmarking this recipe so I can bake it when the opportunity presents itself!

AND ... point taken about beautiful things not being pests etc, but as we speak there's 30-40 'Chainsaws' hovering over my fruiting quince tree - up to NO GOOD!! So I'll allow myself a few little cuss words while I admire their beauty ...

MAry..you cannot imagine how happy I am to find this recipe on your blog today!!!

During my last travel to USA (summer 2009) I ate this lemon pound cake and evry morning in New York city this was my breakfast..anyway whwn I came back home i found some recipe on web...but they were unsuccessfull...now I am going to prepare it!!Thank you.... love and blessings, Flavia

Five lemons? Perfect! I've rarely met a poundcake that I didn't like--or anything with lemons to flavor. It is the one cake that I don't mind "falling"--creating some denser areas. My sisters and I learned this from our grandmother--except she meant for us not to jump around and cause the cake to fall. We reversed that "recipe". I'm pushing "print".

I love lemon pound cake! This one looks fabulous. I'm one who has made the switch to weigh flour when I'm baking. It's so easy if you have a scale. Before I started using a scale, I used your method of lightly spooning the flour into the cup and leveling with a knife. It always seemed to work for me.

I wanted to pop back in, Mary, to thank you for your ever sweet and thoughtful comments on my blog. You are also funny . . . you really got me laughing today . . . about me being a good baker for an MK. I have been laughing all morning. Thanks.

Thank you for your visit to my blog and for your comment. I have tried pound cake before and there is just something so comforting about it that you don't get with any other cake. It looks lovely. Very interesting that they are called pound cakes because of the ratios.

A lovely cake, Mary. My mother use to make a 7 Up pound cake that I still make anytime I need to feed a crowd. It's huge. Many the same ingredients and I do a light lemon glaze for it.Copying your recipe right now....

Ooh, this would be just heaven! I love pound cake and I love lemon cake and lemon bread. I think I have misplaced my lemon bread recipe now that I mention it. Such a beautiful cake presentation. Yum, it would be gone in no time!

I still treasure my Grandmother's pound cake recipe in her handwriting, which basically just says "take a pound each of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour, mix, and bake..." :-) I can still remember how rich her pound cake was when she made it for me as a little girl! :-) Thank you so much for bringing back such wonderful memories and introducing me to this gorgeous recipe! :-)

This looks just delicious. I love pound cakes, and I'm sure the lemon adds the perfect amount of brightness.I also like you suggestion of bluberry compote. Thank you for sharing all of this yumminess. I hope you have a great Friday. The weekend approaches!

Thank you for your good wishes! I agree pound cakes have fallen out of fashion but this one looks divine. I love citrus cakes like this, especially in the winter months, bring hopes of spring! Cheers, Evelyne

I'm so glad to find this recipe! Last week a friend came to MY dinner party with a lemon dessert somewhat requiring me to serve it despite my own plans. In two weeks we are going to his house so I will bring THIS. Ha! You are a life saver.:)

I made these pound cakes for our Farmers Market this past summer. Let me just say, they are fabulous! I made them into small loaves, and sold out every week! This recipe is a keeper! Thanks for sharing!

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